RAM upgrade

[junglee]

I've experience a lot of lag lately controlling my 3dmax files, and under task manager, my memory is usually at 90~95% of usage. I think I should upgrade the memory but I need some help to choose what to go with.

 

My system spec:

- Alienware Aurora R4

- i7-3930K

- 16GB RAM

- 2GB Nvidia GTX 660

 

My ram channel is quad and I'm aware that I can only go up to 32GB but I don't know what latency or timing means, please shed some light!

 

My typical working table consists of open documents in followings if it means anything to consider different RAM types:

 

-3dMax

-Autocad

-Photoshop

-Usually 5+ PDF

-Usually 5+ image viewer

-Outlook

-3+ websites

 

Thanks!

 

Jung

[numerobis]

not much to consider... 1866MHz or 1600MHz with CL10 should be enough. I would buy something without big heatspreader to be more flexible with bigger coolers (if you have air cooling)

[Dimitris Tolios]

how many modules do you have now?

16GB can be either 4*4GB or 2*8GB.

 

I would get 16GB more of the same, no need to trash your old modules.

 

Timings have little to do with 3DS Max performance, and speed doesn't really help once you get up to 1600/1866 speeds. Nearly impossible to tell in real life performance eitherway.

[junglee]

My motherboard have only 4 slots, and I have 4x4GB. I'll have to trash my old module to bump up the space unfortunately.

Do I need to care about what kind of Timing/CL/Voltage I get for my motherboard?

Or can I just get anything that is reasonable in cost?

 

Do you have any suggestion for my computer?

[Dimitris Tolios]

The Alienware Aurora R4 uses a CLC cooler (factory sealed water cooling or "closed loop cooler"), so there is little to no chance of you getting RAM heatspreaders interfering with a large air cooler.

 

Still, I would avoid extremely big/cumbersome heat-spreaders, they add nothing, and usually bump the price up.

 

I don't think you need anything faster than a 1866 kit. The major driver for that, other than cost, are the BIOS settings that DELL allows for RAM voltage: most high capacity, low latency kits above 1866 are 1.6~1.65V. The motherboard will most likely fail to go above 1.5V automatically. You will have to do it manually, or the modules will run @ 1600 etc. You would have to boot into BIOS and check it out yourself, to make sure that whatever you buy can be manually set to higher speed/higher frequencies.

 

If it cannot do more than 1.5V, or better than DDR 1600, just get a plain 1600 32GB kit - the cheapest you can get from Kingston /GSkill / Corsair / Muskin. In some cases DDR1866 have no price difference, so if you are to spend $300 give or take, go for the best bang for your buck, even if the Aurora won't use it to its full potential: maybe another rig down the road will (or you might sell it for a better price in the future).

 

CAS latency = the smaller the better, but latest intel CPUs are not very sensitive about timings. Very little to no performance difference outside benchmarks. Keep in mind that the next generation of intel extreme cpus (the new s2011 revision) will be probably haswell based and will use DDR4, that is inherently of higher latencies than DDR3, much like DDR2 was better than DDR3. We care more about size of blocks that are being exchanged, and the bandwidth of those, vs. the milliseconds of latency it takes between ram operations.

 

newegg appears to have more competitive prices than amazon for 32GB kits:

G.SKILL Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 - 1.5V CAS 10 - $300

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 1.6V CAS 9 - $350 - good value, excellent reviews & speed, but make sure 2133 and 1.6V alike are options for you.

Edited March 10, 2014 by dtolios

[junglee]

Hey Dimitris,

 

 

Thanks for your detailed explanation.

 

 

Do you think RAM swap have anything to do with motherboard fail?

I tried to put my old ram (CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600 Cas Latency 9 Voltage 1.5V modules) into the my current machine and my motherboard failed immediately. Luckily Dell replaced the motherboard for me but I don't want to make same mistake.

 

 

Modules you recommended has higher voltage (1.6v) and I'm not sure if that's going to cause any problem.

Sorry if this is a repeat question.

 

 

I just want something safe and relatively fast.

 

 

Thanks for your help.

[Dimitris Tolios]

High speed RAM modules are technically "overclocked" modules, thus you need higher voltage to maintain the high frequency, the given timmings or both.

 

The RAM "receives" voltage, doesn't give out, so the RAM cannot technically "harm" the motherboard, it is the other way around.

 

RAM consumers VERY little energy. A motherboard needs to be of very low quality / build with zero tolerances to "mind" a watt or so increase in consumption when getting a higher consumption ram module kit in place.

 

If Ram receivers less voltage than recommended, will probably switch to lower frequency / slower timings. Won't burn the board or fail to work completely.

 

Ofc "bad things" happen, and can happen at any time, for any given reason (sometimes is just "bad luck").

 

I've recommended a 1.5V kit, and a 1.6V kit, which are good value options.

It is up to you to figure out whether you can make use of the higher clock / higher voltage one.

[numerobis]

As far as i know, the difference between VCCSA and VDIMM voltage shouldn't be higher than 0,6v for Sandy Bridge/Sandy Bridge-E to not damage the memory controller. So i wouldn't go higher than 1,5v for the RAM (or set the VCCSA manually to something around 1.05v - but not higher than 1.1v!).

I only use Corsair and Kingston exclusively since a few years now. Never had any problems with compatibility. Before this i had bought only G.Skill for some years until they failed to boot in one Gigabyte board.

[junglee]

Thank you so much for replies!

[junglee]

In case anyone is curious...

I just received new memory for 32GB to replace my 16GB.

Wow what a difference. There's no difference in working on photoshop or 3dmax in terms of speed, but now I can work on photoshop files WHILE 3dmax is rendering.

There's no lag in photoshop so far. When I only had 16GB, only thing I could do while rendering was maybe a web surfing because of the lag.

 

I can't be happier!